| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Legend of Montrose by Walter Scott: street. But a stronger and more terrible characteristic of the
period appeared in the market-place, which was a space of
irregular width, half way betwixt the harbour, or pier, and the
frowning castle-gate, which terminated with its gloomy archway,
portcullis, and flankers, the upper end of the vista. Midway
this space was erected a rude gibbet, on which hung five dead
bodies, two of which from their dress seemed to have been
Lowlanders, and the other three corpses were muffled in their
Highland plaids. Two or three women sate under the gallows, who
seemed to be mourning, and singing the coronach of the deceased
in a low voice. But the spectacle was apparently of too ordinary
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Simple Soul by Gustave Flaubert: of air and the action of the sea-baths. She took them in her little
chemise, as she had no bathing suit, and afterwards her nurse dressed
her in the cabin of a customs officer, which was used for that purpose
by other bathers.
In the afternoon, they would take the donkey and go to the Roches-
Noires, near Hennequeville. The path led at first through undulating
grounds, and thence to a plateau, where pastures and tilled fields
alternated. At the edge of the road, mingling with the brambles, grew
holly bushes, and here and there stood large dead trees whose branches
traced zigzags upon the blue sky.
Ordinarily, they rested in a field facing the ocean, with Deauville on
A Simple Soul |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Lady Chatterley's Lover by D. H. Lawrence: twilit, silent and alive. How alive everything was!
Night was drawing near again; she would have to go. He was avoiding
her.
But suddenly he came striding into the clearing, in his black oilskin
jacket like a chauffeur, shining with wet. He glanced quickly at the
hut, half-saluted, then veered aside and went on to the coops. There he
crouched in silence, looking carefully at everything, then carefully
shutting the hens and chicks up safe against the night.
At last he came slowly towards her. She still sat on her stool. He
stood before her under the porch.
'You come then,' he said, using the intonation of the dialect.
Lady Chatterley's Lover |
The fourth excerpt represents the element of Earth. It speaks of physical influences and the impact of the unseen on the visible world, and is drawn from The Europeans by Henry James: Eugenia was prepared to be gracious as only Eugenia could be.
Felix knew no keener pleasure than to be able to admire his
sister unrestrictedly; for if the opportunity was frequent,
it was not inveterate. When she desired to please she was to him,
as to every one else, the most charming woman in the world.
Then he forgot that she was ever anything else; that she was
sometimes hard and perverse; that he was occasionally afraid
of her. Now, as she took his arm to pass into the garden,
he felt that she desired, that she proposed, to please,
and this situation made him very happy. Eugenia would please.
The tall gentleman came to meet her, looking very rigid and grave.
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